“Sit your ass down there,” Robert Irvine told the owner of Rosie’s Cafe on the return of Food Network’s Restaurant: Impossible. He’d just interrupted her on-the-fly interview with a producer; she was explaining that she didn’t feel like a failure, despite having a restaurant that was financially under water. “I’m going to teach you how to run a restaurant,” Irvine said. “I believe in you. I believe so much in you.”

This is the formula for Restaurant: Impossible: Robert Irvine is the tough guy who actually cares. Oh, and he knows his shit, too.

An adult man telling an adult woman to “sit your ass down” is unnecessary, period, even if it is more a nod to Robert’s tough-ass former military guy persona than a product of the need for hosts of these kinds of reality shows to scream obscenities at people.

That’s notable because the path these kinds of makeover reality shows usually follow is ugly: heightened drama, more screaming, making owners fire and/or humiliate their staff just to make a good scene, and not worry about what kind of destruction is left behind.

It’s the path on which you’ll find Gordon Ramsay’s shows and Jon Taffer’s Bar Rescue. And those shows are a long way from Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, the original UK series that established the template for this subgenre of reality TV.

That’s not, thankfully, the path that Restaurant: Impossible was on for its season 14 premiere.

Restaurant: Impossible replaces ambushes with personal attention

Before it was cancelled in 2016, Restaurant: Impossible switched, for its final two seasons, to a format that involved ambushing restaurant owners. They didn’t know the show was coming, and hadn’t asked for help, yet here came a reality TV crew anyway.

Food Network has come to its senses, thankfully, and in the premiere of this new iteration, Robert Irvine came closest to that original Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares Gordon Ramsay as I’ve seen in some time: His passion felt like actual concern rather than performance for cameras, and he was just there the whole time, teaching and asking questions and working with Kaitlyn Rose, the owner of Rosie’s, along with her boyfriend, the restaurant’s untrained chef.

Even the camera work was more laid back, and almost felt casual—even a little sloppy, like someone just held up an iPhone to film. I realize that is not what actually happened, but with so many medium shots and odd framing (one conversation captured only part of the side of Robert’s face), it just felt loose. And that actually worked, because it suggested that the crew was struggling to keep up with what was happening, rather than creating beautifully composed, pre-planned shots.

Robert spent most of the episode focused on the business, its food, and its owner and head chef. He was, at times, disappointed and frustrated and annoyed, but he was also identifying real problems, not feigning horror.

There was a montage of him walking around and ordering people around as the redesign was being completed, but mostly he let the design team do their work. In previous seasons, it’d seemed like he’d wander in with a demand perfectly timed to create drama, but there was much more of a firewall this time.

Designer Taniya Nayak returned, and although she’s been on TV judging ABC’s The Great Christmas Light Fight, it’s terrific to see her back designing, since her work is exceptionally strong. Tom Bury, the construction manager, was back, too, bringing a gold sledgehammer for Robert to smash something.

At the end of the episode, before she saw how Taniya and Tom and locals who’d volunteered to help out (i.e. save the production money) had reimagined her restaurant, Kaitlyn said, “I haven’t seen the place, and Robert’s changed my life in more ways than I can…” She trailed off.

Usually those kinds of statements feel like empty platitudes, and since so many restaurants featured on these kinds of shows fail anyway. But this felt more genuine than usual because we watched her work with Robert, and come to terms with what was happening and what needed to happen.

Food Network seemed to figure out what was happening and what needed to happen with Restaurant: Impossible, and I hope this format continues throughout this season—and future seasons, too.

This spring reality show 2019 schedule is a frequently updated list of premieres for broadcast, cable, and streaming reality TV shows, documentary series, game shows, and other prime-time nonfiction TV.

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about Andy Dehnart

Andy Dehnart’s writing and criticism about television, culture, and media has appeared on NPR and in Vulture, Pacific Standard, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He has covered reality television for more than 18 years, and created reality blurred in 2000.

A member of the Television Critics Association who serves on its board of directors, Andy, 41, also directs the journalism program at Stetson University in Florida, where he teaches creative nonfiction and journalism. He has an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing and literature from Bennington College. Learn more about reality blurred and Andy.

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reality blurred is your guide to the world of reality TV and unscripted entertainment, with reality show reviews, news, and analysis. It was created in 2000 by Andy Dehnart. He's still writing and publishing it today.

reality blurred is regularly updated with highlights from the world of reality TV: news and analysis; behind-the-scenes reports; interviews with reality TV show cast members and producers; and recaps and reviews of these reality TV shows, including Survivor, Big Brother, The Great British Baking Show, Shark Tank, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor, Project Runway, Dancing with the Stars, Top Chef, and many more.